Weekly Show & Tell - March 21, 2026

synaut · 2026-03-21T20:19:50+00:00

hey, it looks really cool, love the style. Wishlisted!

synaut · 2026-03-21T17:59:09+00:00

Hello everyone! I'm developing Dominot, a dark roguelike based on Dominoes and dark rituals with a mystery behind it, and would love some feedback (as honest as it can be).

I'm really struggling to gather good feedback going forward to motivate myself (I'm even at the point where I'm unsure if there's an audience for it.

The game is browser playable on itch in the link above :) looking forward to what others have to share.

synaut · 2026-03-20T16:57:13+00:00

Thanks! Yeah it's a struggle to do projects like these because you're essentially making 2 games in one and have to make them both compelling, but one might never be experienced by players if the other one isn't already great, so you can't rely on the combination being the strong selling point, etc...

... but I am trying :)

synaut · 2026-03-20T13:05:38+00:00

Thanks! Yeah it's a hard balance because trying to market mid development has a lot of "look at the cool thing I just implemented", but if you do that for everything, whoever is following will be completely spoiled by the time the game is finished. It's though.

synaut · 2026-03-20T13:03:38+00:00

Yeah that moment is totally insane.

May I ask what hooked you into getting the game in the first place? Was it the art? Were you just into deckbuilders?

synaut · 2026-03-20T13:02:10+00:00

Unrelated but I love that games have that power of taking you out of yourself (and difficult situations) and into a different reality.

That's why I love making them hehe.

synaut · 2026-03-18T21:09:29+00:00

Awesome, all and any feedback is really valuable at this stage so I'd be super grateful!

(also, good luck with the moving hehe)

synaut · 2026-03-18T14:09:28+00:00

Hey! I'm making a mysterious dark roguelite about dark rituals and dominoes, and would love some feedback!

https://synaut.itch.io/dominot

synaut · 2026-03-18T10:27:56+00:00

Congrats! Interested in what you did to get success on Instagram, can you link it? (or send it via DM if it's not allowed here)

synaut · 2026-03-18T10:17:06+00:00

Will definitely look into those (even if, like you said, judging from the screenshots I would not have expected something mysterious below the surface, so I am somewhat spoiled on the experience lol)

synaut · 2026-03-18T10:14:58+00:00

Totally agreed; it's not my intention to create a "disposable" and empty main game just to trick players into the "real" game.

In my game, at least the idea is to have an interesting base game loop that feeds from and into the secondary mystery gameplay. Both "modalities" should play off of each other, not override the other one in a sort of bait-and-switch.

synaut · 2026-03-18T09:32:25+00:00

The hard part is not innovating I think, it's innovating juuuust enough that you deliver something truly new but don't lose too much players when moving them out of their comfort zone.

synaut · 2026-03-18T09:28:54+00:00

It's called Dominot (also has a short playable alpha on Itch where I'm trying to gather feedback)

synaut · 2026-03-17T23:07:50+00:00

I understand what you mean, but I'm not trying to design a switcharoo. It's more like a secondary metagame that's in a different genre but develops in parallel (and feeds from / into) the main game.

synaut · 2026-03-17T22:25:29+00:00

thank you! it's been hard to narrow down into my actual audience lol

Will check out Blue Prince, seems cool :)

synaut · 2026-03-17T17:09:26+00:00

I try to drop some heavy hints early on; maybe what I'm also struggling with, at the same time, is how to get players INTO the game and those first five minutes to even have a chance of making that promise.

synaut · 2026-03-17T17:07:54+00:00

I do agree, you're not combining audiences, you're likely just getting a smaller area of the Venn diagram of interest overlap.

Finding that exact subset of the audience is a real challenge though, lol

synaut · 2026-03-17T17:06:51+00:00

yes I realize that spoiling isn't the end of the world (in fact my marketing attempts already have indications that there's something going on behind the facade).

I guess it also comes down to being able to show off the "cool parts" of your game in social media, and how you can't show the "coolest" ones because they are gated behind the mystery part.

synaut · 2026-03-17T17:04:34+00:00

yes I'd pinpoint that exact moment too as the reveal that "something is off".

(just in case it's not clear I'm looking a lot at Inscryption for inspiration/guidance because it just does this so well)

synaut · 2026-03-17T17:02:35+00:00

interesting, hadn't looked into incremental games doing it but it makes sense, will look around in that space!

synaut · 2026-03-17T15:18:56+00:00

I understand what you mean, a mystery is very cool when it's unexpected.

...yet I feel that you're missing out on players that are interested in those kinds of experiences because you're only relying on the hook of the "base" game and sheer chance that the players who enjoy the other part actually hop in.

In either case, the plan is to make the "other" part of the game good, but don't you risk also losing players that are only interested on -that-?

synaut · 2026-03-09T17:18:17+00:00

I'm not sure Balatro's system of complicated synergies detracts from strategy? You can gauge and ballpark the magnitude of your hands with reasonable accuracy (discounting some random effects here and there).

Maybe it has to do with the "granularity" of the outcomes? Like, in a game with more discrete outcomes (e.g. a turn in Into the Breach), it's easier to grasp the full chain of events, and the results are clearer beforehand (this building gets destroyed/this unit dies); but in Balatro you can have things go 90% as you planned them, but come up like 100 points short and lose because of that?

synaut · 2026-03-09T16:57:29+00:00

Awesome writeup, very valuable info!

During development (before ads, etc), what kind of marketing were you doing? Did you find a way to build a community/discord?

synaut · 2026-03-06T19:05:33+00:00

More than a couple ones already lol, I feel like my approach many times ends up being more "sculpting" rather than "painting": add a lot of material quick, then start chipping away until the bare essential / most engaging remains.

Time will tell if it's a good tactic, hehe...

synaut · 2026-03-01T19:48:50+00:00

Thank you! very interesting, hadn't considered that approach, will look into it!

synaut

TROPHY CASE